Realizing his life is in danger, Megatron lashes out at Perceptor, demanding that he be sent back in time to save himself. Ultra Magnus restrains the former Decepticon, and he and Perceptor insist that Rodimus has the matter well in hand. Megatron is unconvinced, given Rodimus's track record, but the decision is out of his hands: Perceptor sends Rodimus's team back in time, draining the last of the power from the ship's quantum generators.

In the distant past, in Con Facility 113, Brainstorm aims his gun at the constructed cold Megatron's half-built form, but is suddenly taken out by a whirlwind-generating "grenado" hurled by Rodimus as he and his team materialize on the scene. Consulting the facility computers, Rung observes that Brainstorm has tried to delete information on Megatron from them, and calls upon Rewind to help him fill in the blanks, but Rewind finds that his database has now been completely overwritten with the history of the alternate timeline. Brainstorm has not yet been stopped! The scientist recover and draws his gun once more, but Rung—having seen in the computer records that Brainstorm had been hesitating for ten long minutes before they arrived—is able to talk him into standing down. Brainstorm explains that he never wanted to kill anyone: he had intended to track Megatron through time using a sparkprint taken from him during his therapy session with Rung, planning simply to steer him away from "life-changing events", only to have his hand forced when he realized part-way into his journey that he was following a print accidentally taken from Rung instead. At that point, Brainstorm's injuries take their toll and he keels over... but just as he hits the floor, Rewind uses his gun to kill Megatron instead!

The shaken archivist shares what his overwritten database has told him: that if Megatron dies, although Cybertron will be consigned to a dystopian Functionist-governed future, the rest of the universe will be spared the devastation of the Transformers' war. No one can really argue against his logic... except for Whirl, who refuses to let the Functionists "win". Grabbing Megatron's body when nobody is looking and snatching the Point One Percenter spark taken from Luna 1 from Brainstorm's chest compartment, he locks himself in a nearby room and implants the spark into Megatron's body. With this action, Whirl ensures the safety of the existing timeline: Magnus contacts Rodimus let him know that time has begun moving again, but that, with the quantum engines out of power, they are now stranded in the past. To spare them this fate, Tailgate suggests they use the time phone to try and prevent the Lost Light from taking off in the first place, altering their destinies. Together, the group sends a message to Cybertron on the ship's launch day, warning their future selves of all the dangers that they will face on their journey—though as Cyclonus points out, if it was successful, all the good they have done on their trip will also not happen. Rodimus cuts off Cyclonus's rant and hands him Whirl's gun: though they cannot travel through time, Perceptor can teleport them one last time to a location on Cybertron that may hold the key to their salvation.

After Rodimus and Cyclonus have left, the weakened Brainstorm explains his motivations to Rewind: originally, he had created the time machine in order to save Quark, the unrequited love of his life, from dying in Grindcore prison. Following the original Rewind's death and Chromedome's emotional breakdown, however, Brainstorm decided to expand the scope of his mission, and decided to save as many lives as possible by preventing the war. Afterward, Tailgate asks Rewind to explain exactly where Rodimus and Cyclonus have gone; Rewind tells him they have gone to Unitrex, the city in which the first interstellar starships were created. Pulling up an image of the region from his database, Rewind is struck by the sight of some very familiar fuel quills poking up from below t

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